Happy NaNoWriMo

to all who celebrate

I do not get my best writing done in November. I figured this out years ago when I started writing novels other times of the year and stopped trying to cram them into a month. Despite this, I have decided to partake in National Novel Writing Month, yet again, and peer pressure my spouse into doing a half-nano (25k goal instead of 50k).

And I’m glad I made that decision! So far, instead of writing, I ordered stickers I was supposed to order for pride 2023, replied to business(?) emails, realized the zine manuscript (from 2020) I thought about upcycling into something better actually is perfect as a zine manuscript and I want it off my shelf, impulsively ordered half a dozen acorn squash for next week, carved a repeating pattern linocut, yelled “my coffee!” 3 hours after I started the french press, ran across the house, made creamer…

Nothing gets me going like the pressure to live up to my own expectations.

Anyhow, when I do get to writing, I’ll be working on what I think will be a body horror/ surrealist fiction possibly humor piece… A friend told me I had “a chaotic writing style” and I embrace this wholeheartedly, but it does make it difficult to explain to people what I am doing. A character sketch for the main character to be is on the Hello America Fall Compilation, which came out today, and that you should listen to here- on their bandcamp.

Every November for the past decade I have offered the same advice to people thinking about doing NaNo- do it if it’s fun for you, do it if you get something out of it, don’t do it if it burns you out on writing so hard that the rest of the year you don’t have the stamina to create anything else. As a hobby or compulsion, writing isn’t always enjoyable in a ‘oh I feel so happy about this!’ way, but at the least it should be giving you something back.